LIHUE — Nearly 800 fifth grade students created a splash on Friday at the Vidinha Stadium soccer fields during the Project Wet Make A Splash water education event presented by the Department of Water (DOW) in collaboration with numerous community partners.
Jonell Kaohelaulii of the DOW said the 787 students represented the largest group they’ve had since Make A Splash started 19 years ago.
“Today’s group is from all of the public schools on the island,” Kaohelaulii said. “It doesn’t include any students from the charter schools or home schools that never responded to our inquiries.”
As the only island in the state to present Make A Splash event, the DOW has been hosting the event since it debuted.
“We should be at 21 years,” Kaohelaulii said. “But we took off for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are other islands that want to set up a similar program, but to date we’re the only ones in the state that present Make A Splash.”
Becky Malapit, one of the DOW volunteers, said she’s been with the DOW for 20 years, and has been involved with Make A Splash for as long as she can remember.
Make A Splash is a series of interactive stations, 10 for this year, where fifth grade students receive water education centering around the DOW and its mission of being able to deliver safe, quality water to Kauai’s people.
One example is housing, and the urgent need for more affordable units. But how do you build more houses and still have the ability to provide service from a finite resource such as water?
“One of our new stations this year by Aqua Engineers is ‘Don’t Flush,’” Kaohelaulii said.
The station discussed reclaiming water, and had student scientists taking samples of alkaline and acid products to compare against a master chart.
Earlier in the year, the DOW hosted fifth grade educators for a presentation where teachers could fully utilize the Make A Splash experience.
“This is a really good program,” said a teacher from the Hanalei Elementary School. “We still don’t have our school uniforms, yet, but these people even took care of the bus transportation. More people should have access to what is being presented.”
Kaohelaulii said the success of the program is the collaboration and volunteerism of the community partners and water industry leaders from Kauai and neighbor islands.
This year’s collaborators joining the DOW were Aqua Engineers, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Department of Health, Safe Drinking Water Branch, East and West Kauai Soil and Water Conservation District, Grove Farm Land Corp., Hawaii Rural Water Association, Hawaii Water Environmental Association, Kapaa High School JROTC, Kodani &Associates Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Marine Mammal Rescue Program, The Nature Conservancy, County of Kauai, Kauai County Farm Bureau and University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
